Functional classification of ESTs from vernonia (Vernonia galamensis L.) cDNA library

The Vernonia galamensis (Cass.) Less [synonym: Centrapalus pauciflorus] Compositae, is a source of naturally epoxidized oil. Its commercial use is limited due to presence of a lipase enzyme that produces high free fatty acid levels in vernonia oil. The genomic information and the gene expression patterns of lipase in vernonia has not been studied in detail. The objectives of our studies were to construct a complementary DNA (cDNA) library from vernonia seed to identify expressed sequence tags (ESTs) related to various plant functions. We were successful in constructing a cDNA library from seed tissues of vernonia. A total of 1325 cDNA clones were randomly sequenced and analyzed. A total of 97 high-quality ESTs with an average length of 400 bp were generated. These ESTs indicated the existence of genes involved in varied functions such as defense, protein processing, transcription, translation, signal transduction, and secondary metabolism. Out of the total EST sequences, there were 129 ESTs containing simple sequence repeats (SSRs) from which 63 SSR primer pairs were designed. It is the first transcriptome report from the vernonia that has generated ESTs as well as EST derived SSR markers capable of being used in future oil quality, transformation and germplasm characterization studies.

► Construction of high quality cDNA library.
► 1056 ESTs submitted to GenBank (GO614485 to GO615830).
► 63 EST-SSR markers available for future studies.